endpoint security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

For nearly 20 years, we at The Hacker News have mostly told scary stories about cyberspace — big hacks, broken systems, and new threats. But behind every headline, there’s a quieter, better story. It’s the story of leaders making tough calls under pressure, teams building smarter defenses, and security products that keep hunting threats 24/7 — even when it’s hard. Most of the time, this work is invisible. When everything goes perfectly, nothing happens. The world just stays safe, and no one notices. Today, we want the world to notice. Introducing the CyberStars Awards 2026 We are launching the  Cybersecurity Stars Awards 2026 , a global program that recognizes excellence across the cybersecurity industry and highlights outstanding work that often goes unnoticed. Submissions are now open, and companies, products, and professionals can apply via the official awards portal: https://awards.thehackernews.com/ We don’t just want to report the news anymore. We want to recognize t...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an intrusion that involved the use of a CloudZ remote access tool (RAT) and a previous undocumented plugin dubbed Pheno with the aim of facilitating credential theft. "According to the functionalities of the CloudZ RAT and Pheno plugin, this was with the intention of stealing victims' credentials and potentially one-time passwords (OTPs)," Cisco Talos researchers Alex Karkins and Chetan Raghuprasad said in a Tuesday analysis. What makes the attack novel is that CloudZ uses the custom Pheno plugin to hijack the established PC-to-phone bridge by abusing the Microsoft Phone Link application, permitting the plugin to monitor for active Phone Link processes and potentially intercept sensitive mobile data like SMS and one-time passwords (OTPs) without the need for deploying malware on the phone.  The findings demonstrate how legitimate cross-device syncing features can expose unintended attack pathways to credential theft...

A newly identified supply chain attack targeting DAEMON Tools software has compromised its installers to serve a malicious payload, according to findings from Kaspersky. "These installers are distributed from the legitimate website of DAEMON Tools and are signed with digital certificates belonging to DAEMON Tools developers," Kaspersky researchers  Igor Kuznetsov, Georgy Kucherin, Leonid Bezvershenko, and Anton Kargin said . The installers have been trojanized since April 8, 2026, with versions ranging from 12.5.0.2421 to 12.5.0.2434 identified as compromised as part of the incident. While DAEMON Tools is also available for Mac, Kaspersky told The Hacker News that only the Windows version was compromised. The supply chain attack is active as of writing. AVB Disc Soft, the developer of the software, has been notified of the breach. Specifically, three different components of DAEMON Tools have been tampered with - DTHelper.exe DiscSoftBusServiceLite.exe DTShellHlp.exe ...

A sophisticated China-nexus advanced persistent threat (APT) group has been attributed to attacks targeting government entities in South America since at least late 2024 and government agencies in southeastern Europe in 2025. The activity is being tracked by Cisco Talos under the moniker UAT-8302 , with post-exploitation involving the deployment of custom-made malware families that have been put to use by other China-aligned hacking groups. Notable among the malware families is a .NET-based backdoor dubbed NetDraft (aka NosyDoor), a C# variant of FINALDRAFT (aka Squidoor) that has been previously linked to threat clusters known as Ink Dragon , CL-STA-0049, Earth Alux , Jewelbug , and REF7707 . ESET is tracking the use of NosyDoor to a group it calls LongNosedGoblin . Interestingly, the same malware has also been deployed against Russian IT organizations by a threat actor referred to as Erudite Mogwai (aka Space Pirates and Webworm), per Russian cybersecurity company Solar, which...

An active phishing campaign has been observed targeting multiple vectors since at least April 2025 with legitimate Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software as a way to establish persistent remote access to compromised hosts. The activity, codenamed VENOMOUS#HELPER , has impacted over 80 organizations, most of which are in the U.S., according to Securonix. It shares overlaps with clusters previously tracked by Red Canary and Sophos, the latter of which has given it the moniker STAC6405 . While it's not clear who is behind the campaign, the cybersecurity company said it aligns with a financially motivated Initial Access Broker (IAB) or a ransomware precursor operation. "In this case, a customized SimpleHelp and ScreenConnect RMMs are used to bypass defenses as they are legitimately installed by the unsuspecting victim," researchers Akshay Gaikwad, Shikha Sangwan, and Aaron Beardslee said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Setting aside the fact that the ...

The China-based cybercrime group known as Silver Fox (aka Monarch, SwimSnake, The Great Thief of Valley, UTG-Q-1000, and Void Arachne) has been linked to a new campaign targeting organizations in Russia and India with a new malware called ABCDoor . The activity involved using phishing emails that mimic correspondence from the Income Tax Department of India in December 2025, followed by a similar campaign aimed at Russian entities in January 2026. "Both waves followed a nearly identical structure: phishing emails were styled as official notices regarding tax audits or prompted users to download an archive containing a 'list of tax violations,'" Kaspersky said . "Inside the archive was a modified Rust-based loader pulled from a public repository. This loader would download and execute the well-known ValleyRAT backdoor." The campaign is estimated to have impacted organizations across the industrial, consulting, retail, and transportation sectors. More th...

Threat actors associated with The Gentlemen ransomware‑as‑a‑service (RaaS) operation have been observed attempting to deploy a known proxy malware called SystemBC . According to new research published by Check Point, the command-and-control (C2 or C&C) server linked to SystemBC has led to the discovery of a botnet of more than 1,570 victims. "SystemBC establishes SOCKS5 network tunnels within the victim’s environment and connects to its C&C server using a custom RC4‑encrypted protocol," Check Point said. "It can also download and execute additional malware, with payloads either written to disk or injected directly into memory." Since its emergence in July 2025, The Gentlemen has quickly established itself as one of the most prolific ransomware groups, claiming more than 320 victims on its data leak site. Operating under a classic double-extortion model, the group is versatile as it's sophisticated, exhibiting capabilities to target Windows, Linux, N...

Huntress is warning that threat actors are exploiting three recently disclosed security flaws in Microsoft Defender to gain elevated privileges in compromised systems. The activity involves  the exploitation of three vulnerabilities that are codenamed BlueHammer (requires GitHub sign-in), RedSun , and UnDefend , all of which were released as zero-days by a researcher known as Chaotic Eclipse (aka Nightmare-Eclipse) in response to Microsoft's handling of the vulnerability disclosure process. While both BlueHammer and RedSun are local privilege escalation (LPE) flaws impacting Microsoft Defender, UnDefend can be used to trigger a denial-of-service (DoS) condition and effectively block definition updates. Microsoft moved to address BlueHammer as part of its Patch Tuesday updates released earlier this week. The vulnerability is being tracked under the CVE identifier CVE-2026-33825 . However, the other flaws do not have a fix as of writing. In a series of posts shared on X, Hunt...

Adobe has released emergency updates to fix a critical security flaw in Acrobat Reader that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2026-34621 , carries a CVSS score of 8.6 out of 10.0. Successful exploitation of the flaw could allow an attacker to run malicious code on affected installations. It has been described as a case of prototype pollution that could result in arbitrary code execution. Prototype pollution refers to a JavaScript security vulnerability  that permits an attacker to manipulate an application's objects and properties. The issue impacts the following products and versions for both Windows and macOS - Acrobat DC versions 26.001.21367 and earlier (Fixed in 26.001.21411) Acrobat Reader DC versions 26.001.21367 and earlier (Fixed in 26.001.21411) Acrobat 2024 versions 24.001.30356 and earlier (Fixed in 24.001.30362 for Windows and...

Your attack surface no longer lives on one operating system, and neither do the campaigns targeting it. In enterprise environments, attackers move across Windows endpoints, executive MacBooks, Linux infrastructure, and mobile devices, taking advantage of the fact that many SOC workflows are still fragmented by platform.  For security leaders, this creates a costly operational gap : slower validation, limited early-stage visibility, more escalations, and more time for attackers to steal credentials, establish persistence, or move deeper before the response fully begins. The Multi-OS Attack Problem SOCs Aren’t Ready For A multi-OS attack can turn one threat into several different investigations at once. The campaign may follow a different path depending on the system it reaches, which breaks the speed and consistency SOC teams rely on during early triage. Instead of moving through one clear validation pro...

The most active piece of enterprise infrastructure in the company is the developer workstation. That laptop is where credentials are created, tested, cached, copied, and reused across services, bots, build tools, and now local AI agents. In March 2026, the TeamPCP threat actor proved just how valuable developer machines are. Their supply chain attack on LiteLLM, a popular AI development library downloaded millions of times daily, turned developer endpoints into systematic credential harvesting operations. The malware only needed access to the plaintext secrets already sitting on disk. The LiteLLM Attack: A Case Study in Developer Endpoint Compromise The attack was straightforward in execution but devastating in scope. TeamPCP compromised LiteLLM packages versions 1.82.7 and 1.82.8 on PyPI, injecting infostealer malware that activated when developers installed or updated the package. The malware systematically harv...

Threat actors associated with Qilin  and Warlock ransomware operations have been observed using the bring your own vulnerable driver ( BYOVD ) technique to silence security tools running on compromised hosts, according to findings from Cisco Talos and Trend Micro. Qilin attacks analyzed by Talos have been found to deploy a malicious DLL named "msimg32.dll," which initiates a multi-stage infection chain to disable endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. The DLL, launched via DLL side-loading, is capable of terminating more than 300 EDR drivers from almost every security vendor in the market. "The first stage consists of a PE loader responsible for preparing the execution environment for the EDR killer component," Talos researchers Takahiro Takeda and Holger Unterbrink said . "This secondary payload is embedded within the loader in an encrypted form." The DLL loader implements an array of techniques to evade de...

There is a character that keeps appearing in enterprise security departments, and most CISOs know exactly who that is. It doesn’t build. It doesn’t enable. Its entire function is to say "No." No to ChatGPT. No to DeepSeek. No to the file-sharing tool the product team swears by. For years, this looked like security. But in 2026, "Doctor No" is no longer just a management headache – it is a systemic security liability. Because when you block the work, users don’t stop. They reroute. The Tax-Evaders of Productivity When security feels like a tax on efficiency, employees find a way to "evade" it. The industry has long relied on Endpoint Agents to enforce control. But as any CISO knows, these agents come with a heavy "tax." They hook into the OS kernel, they’re invasive, they notoriously break during macOS updates, and they make high-performance machines run hot. The result? Users find workarounds. Files move into personal Gmail. Prompts are...

For years, cybersecurity has followed a familiar model: block malware, stop the attack. Now, attackers are moving on to what’s next. Threat actors now use malware less frequently in favor of what’s already inside your environment, including abusing trusted tools, native binaries, and legitimate admin utilities to move laterally, escalate privileges, and persist without raising alarms. Most organizations fail to see this risk until after the damage is done. To help visualize this challenge, consider a complimentary Internal Attack Surface Assessment — a guided, low-friction way to see where trusted tools may be working against you. Now, let’s look at how this risk operates within your environment, and 3 reasons why attackers prefer using your own tools against you. 1. Most Attacks No Longer Look Like Attacks Threat actors prefer attacks that don’t look like attacks. Recent analysis of over 700,000 high-severity incidents shows a clear shift : 84% of attacks now abuse legitimate ...

What is really slowing Tier 1 down: the threat itself or the process around it? In many SOCs, the biggest delays do not come from the threat alone. They come from fragmented workflows, manual triage steps, and limited visibility early in the investigation. Fixing those process gaps can help Tier 1 move faster, reduce unnecessary escalations, and improve how the entire SOC responds under pressure.  Here are three process fixes that can help unlock stronger Tier 1 performance. Process #1: Replace Tool Switching with One Cross-Platform Investigation Workflow The problem: Tier 1 often loses time moving between different tools, interfaces, and processes to investigate suspicious activity across operating systems. What starts as one alert can quickly turn into a fragmented workflow. Why it hurts productivity: Constant tool switching slows down triage, breaks investigation focus, and makes it harder to build a clear picture of what is happening. It also increases the chance of missed...

A large-scale malvertising campaign active since January 2026 has been observed targeting U.S.-based individuals searching for tax-related documents to serve rogue installers for ConnectWise ScreenConnect that drop a tool named HwAudKiller to blind security programs using the bring your own vulnerable driver ( BYOVD ) technique. "The campaign abuses Google Ads to serve rogue ScreenConnect (ConnectWise Control) installers, ultimately delivering a BYOVD EDR killer that drops a kernel driver to blind security tools before further compromise," Huntress researcher Anna Pham said in a report published last week. The cybersecurity vendor said it identified over 60 instances of malicious ScreenConnect sessions tied to the campaign. The attack chain stands out for a couple of reasons. Unlike recent campaigns highlighted by Microsoft that leverage tax-themed lures, the newly flagged activity employs commercial cloaking services to avoid detection by security scanners and abuses a ...

An ongoing phishing campaign is targeting French-speaking corporate environments with fake resumes that lead to the deployment of cryptocurrency miners and information stealers. "The campaign uses highly obfuscated VBScript files disguised as resume/CV documents, delivered through phishing emails," Securonix researchers Shikha Sangwan, Akshay Gaikwad, and Aaron Beardslee said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Once executed, the malware deploys a multi-purpose toolkit that combines credential theft, data exfiltration, and Monero cryptocurrency mining for maximum monetization." The activity has been codenamed FAUX#ELEVATE by the cybersecurity company. The campaign is noteworthy for the abuse of legitimate services and infrastructure, such as Dropbox for staging payloads, Moroccan WordPress sites for hosting command-and-control (C2) configuration, and mail[.]ru SMTP infrastructure for exfiltrating stolen browser credentials and desktop files. This is an ...

Threat actors are suspected to be exploiting a maximum-severity security flaw impacting Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA), according to Arctic Wolf. The cybersecurity company said it observed malicious activity starting the week of March 9, 2026, in customer environments that's consistent with the exploitation of CVE-2025-32975 on unpatched SMA systems exposed to the internet. It's currently not known what the end goals of the attack are. CVE-2025-32975 (CVSS score: 10.0) refers to an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows attackers to impersonate legitimate users without valid credentials. Successful exploitation of the flaw could facilitate the complete takeover of administrative accounts. The issue was patched by Quest in May 2025. In the malicious activity detected by Arctic Wolf, threat actors are believed to have weaponized the vulnerability to seize control of administrative accounts and execute remote commands to drop Base64-encoded payloads ...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new malware dubbed Speagle that hijacks the functionality and infrastructure of a legitimate program called Cobra DocGuard. "Speagle is designed to surreptitiously harvest sensitive information from infected computers and transmit it to a Cobra DocGuard server that has been compromised by the attackers, masking the data exfiltration process as legitimate communications between client and server," Symantec and Carbon Black researchers said in a report published today. Cobra DocGuard is a document security and encryption platform developed by EsafeNet. The abuse of this software in real-world attacks has been publicly recorded twice to date. In January 2023, ESET documented an intrusion where a gambling company in Hong Kong was compromised in September 2022 via a malicious update pushed by the software. Later that August, Symantec highlighted the activity of a new threat cluster codenamed Carderbee, which was found using a trojan...

A new analysis of endpoint detection and response (EDR) killers has revealed that 54 of them leverage a technique known as bring your own vulnerable driver ( BYOVD ) by abusing a total of 35 vulnerable drivers. EDR killer programs have been a common presence in ransomware intrusions as they offer a way for affiliates to neutralize security software before deploying file-encrypting malware. This is done so in an attempt to evade detection. "Ransomware gangs, especially those with ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) programs, frequently produce new builds of their encryptors, and ensuring that each new build is reliably undetected can be time-consuming," ESET researcher Jakub Souček said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "More importantly, encryptors are inherently very noisy (as they inherently need to modify a large number of files in a short period); making such malware undetected is rather challenging." EDR killers act as a specialized, external component...